Susannah Perlman leads revue of comedy and variety
in special Purim edition.

As
host and ringmaster of “Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad,” a comedy and
musical revue that presented its Purim edition at Comix on March 12,
Susannah Perlman fills the room all on her own, with frequent costume
changes and a brassy presence.

She describes her own show, which has been running around New York and
also touring for six years in all, as “Cher wrapped in Clay Aiken.”
Don’t know about that necessarily, but Perlman makes the most of her
cast, giving stand-ups Ophira Eisenberg and Michelle Collins their mike
time, but also working them into the more sketch-like bits with her
guests and herself.

Outside of Eisenberg and Collins, the show is a mix of burlesque, raunch
and variety. With her back-up dancers, “Sister Schmaltz,” (Amber Bloom
and Jessie Erian) Perlman’s star turn is singing a dirty hip-hop number,
“Eat My Hamentashen.” Bloom and Erian also provide a lot of the
atmosphere, with burlesque-inspired skits, like entering dressed as
Hasids then stripping.

The special guests in the show, D’Yan Forest and “Mira Stroika,” were
quite original and creative performers. Forest, at more than 70 years
old, gleefully and impishly performed a ménage of stand-up and snippets
of risqué songs, and earned a deservedly warm response from the
audience. “Mira,” in character as an Eastern European minstrel
character, seemed inspired by Andy Kaufman in her own creation of a
misguided ethnic personality.

The mix of regulars and guests (Eisenberg is more frequently on the bill
for “Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad” show), with Perlman tying it all
together with her self-described “attention whore” tendencies, and the
rapid pace of the acts and sketches keeps the energy level and the
laughs high in the show -- and also likely keeps it fresh each time
since it’s flexible enough to include different acts.